Now Magu has been held way past the constitutionally stipulated 48 hours without any court order granting the authorities any power to hold him past that; only being ferried to face the Presidential panel and back to police custody. He is hesitant about approaching a court of law to demand his release because it would appear confrontational and disrupt his chances of getting a soft landing. He has also not had any of his cronies leak anything to the press and all that may, in the end, prove a very wise call.

The Buhari administration has a reputation for threading cautiously with friends it decides to turn its back on. There is the case of Sani Baba-Inna, Aisha Buhari’s former ADC who was accused of defrauding people of N2.5bn in her name. His family confirmed what many suspected to be the case when they told popular activist, Deji Adeyanju that they knew he stole her money and that he had been a front for her, even buying a house in Abuja for one of her daughters. Baba-Inna was handed over to the police about 2 years ago and till date, has not been prosecuted in court.

As a matter of fact, no one has heard anything since and that is likely due to either the man having a story they don’t want to be told or them having a troublesome conscience. There is also the case of former DSS Chief, Lawal Daura, the man under whom the damning report on Magu was prepared en route his rejection by the senate. Questions started being asked of Daura when proof that he was listed as an APC committee member prior to Buhari being President became public.

There were also the suspicions that he was helping Buhari carry out a Fulani supremacist agenda when his DSS announced that 5 Fulani corpses had been found in a forest in the east and that they were kidnapped and killed by IPOB members. It is really saying nothing out of the ordinary to say that no security agency talk more the secret police would make such remarks publicly without having apprehended the culprits. Why were they looking to start trouble?.

First, how did they know the buried corpses they unearthed were Fulanis? Secondly, how did they know the IPOB was responsible? Weeks later, heavily armed herdsmen attacked Nimbo town in Enugu and killed 46 people. Daura was Buhari’s right-hand man and when he shut down the national assembly which was locked in a bitter feud with the presidency, it was obvious on whose orders he was acting. That lockdown had foreign countries scared and Buhari who was in the UK at that time for treatment was feeling the heat like his Vice and then Acting President, Yomi Osinbajo who was being besieged with calls and visits by envoys of countries who were scared a coup was taking place.

Daura was made to take the fall and despite being handed over to the police 2 years ago, he has still not been prosecuted. Like Baba-Inna, nothing has been heard ever since though there have been a few rumours of him now living overseas with some members of his family. Buhari’s handlers ridiculously tried to insinuate that he was working with then-Senate President, Bukola Saraki to give the Buhari administration a bad name.

The thing is just weeks before the invasion, the entrance of Saraki’s house and that of his deputy were blocked by the DSS and police. Buhari couldn’t claim to have suddenly woken up to Daura’s excesses just like he can’t claim not to know what Magu was capable of. He saw his record and decided, in fact, insisted that he needed a man like Magu to work with.

Judging from the treatment those that have helped do their dirty job have gotten, Magu may end up with just a sack if indicted or worst case, be remanded in police custody till he is secretly let out when everyone has forgotten.

Under Buhari shame has left us.

Umar Sa’ad Hassan is based in Kano.